From Bot Lane to Jungle: In search of basic jungling concepts.

Nova Skye·2/19/2015, 3:08:31 PM·1 votes·1,029 views

Hopefully the title says it all :D

I am, and always have, been a bot lane main (ADC and Support) with the ability to move to mid (and top if an ADC top champ is desirable). But I feel it's time to start roaming as Jungle, and I have a TON to learn. Before the Rift's update, it was one thing to learn the correct travel path, and I gained much of my map awareness skills doing so when there wasn't much to think about besides making sure I made it to the right lane in the process.

But now that's changed.

I, as of right now, can only take Warwick into the dark woods safely (I'm working on a Vi purchase but I'm still about 2k IP short). I do really well on the camp clear, and I always start with the two stones no matter which side. But I know absolutely nothing about the jungle now. I know that some camps give you buffs, but I don't know what the buffs are nor do I know how to use them once I get them (well, I do understand the wolf's free ward, but I can't figure out which camp on the other side does the same thing - maybe there's not one?).

So, assuming for now that I am taking Warwick into the jungle, could someone please explain to me what I'm looking at/for?

  1. Camps and Buffs
  2. Correct paths for varying situations (I know which lanes are gankable and when, that's not what I mean - does the clear path matter depending on which side your team is on?)
  3. One damage Item, the AS Smite upgrade, and the rest tank is a good build?
  4. Best ganking techniques? Here, my current strategy is to treat Warwick as support once I get into lane - AKA "I'll hold 'em and you kill 'em". I also try to avoid ganking at all costs before level 6 but I find that making a presence in mid lane around 4 with an AS boost to the laner as I pass and a threatening Q on the enemy and then running off like a kitten works well (Bronze 5, probably doesn't always work).

Anything else that I'm not even thinking of?

One thing of note: If I get counter jungled, I'm basically done. I have NO CLUE what to do in that case and end up roaming my empty jungle aimlessly, or dying to their fed jungler in their own jungle in trying to find camps that haven't been taken.

26 Comments

Balderdash10002/19/2015, 3:27:11 PM2 votes

These are the smite buffs. Gromp: damages anything that damages you Blue: Mana back Wolves: Free ward Raptors: Spot wards Red: Health back Golems: Stun on auto

A lot of lower sustain jungles just clear all the camps on one side of the jungle then recall to upgrade the machete before finishing the clear.

Dealing with counter jungling depends on the situation, but if there's really nothing else to do, you could always try a gank.

4nth0l0gy2/19/2015, 3:48:47 PM2 votes

Hey OP, Jungle main here. My advice: don't learn jungle right now.

The balance of jungle is as bad as its ever been. It was more wide open in season 2. It's too complex a role for the lack of tangible reward that goes with it. Keep being an ADC, enjoy your seat of comfort.

DeloricVI2/19/2015, 4:52:17 PM2 votes

As a jungle main, I must disagree with many people that say don't learn jungle right now. I only saw one below, but I'm sure there are many that agree with him. Or her. There is no guarantee that riot will make jungling easier in subsequent patches, and if you can't play a given role, no matter how easy you can carry, no matter how good of a support mid top and marksman you are, if you can't jungle you're still not good at league of legends. To address your points in order:

  1. Smite buffs.

Smiting the large monster of a camp will give you buffs in this jungle, and it applies AS SOON AS YOU SMITE. Meaning when you smite gromp, even if it doesn't die, you still get the buff to help you clear that camp. This is why many people start with gromp, as it gives you a useful buff for clearing camps, toadstool armor (which gives a poison DoT to anything that damages you). Smiting red and blue give you health and mana respectively for smiting them, a nice chunk for if you need some sustain while clearing. The wolves give you a ward that will follow enemies that enter that side of the jungle, which you use... not very often. Usually in early-mid game when you don't want to buy wards, but there is a threat of them taking your blue. The wraiths have a ward clear for their buff; it's good for if you want to blind-side someone or destroy some stealth wards. If a ward detects you, then you get true sight for a short time, long enough to destroy wards, certainly. It can also find pink wards in bushes, which is neat. The last buff from golems is gift of the heavy hands, which has fallen out of favor. It's been nerfed a lot; it used to be the first camp every time. It gives your auto attacks a stun every... 3 or 5 AA's, I can't remember; I honestly never bother with it now. It can't affect champions, so it doesn't help gank, and that champions I pick don't need help clearing with it. Even if you do need help clearing, trailblazer's tomahawk gives you blasting smite, which is better anyway.

  1. Honestly, the route doesn't matter a ton at lower elos, as long as you're mobile enough to get where you need to be to gank. Most of the time I make my own path. It sounds like you're going to stick with traditional junglers where camp clear should be pretty easy, so until you get higher elo don't worry so much about it.

  2. Builds are highly subjective, and I can't give you a build like that for any given champ that you can just drag and drop. If you were to jungle Amumu, then that build would be very far from optimal; you would probably want lots of damage items that also give you health and armor, such as Rylai's, liandry's, or zhonya's. For Vi, lots of armor and health; one of her best roles as a jungler is armor breaker. Once your Denting Blows wrecks the enemy tank's armor, he's pretty weak for the AD to destroy. This also goes for any other character that builds armor.

  3. Again, depends on the champion. Junlers with CC most certainly work that way. If you can, try to feed kills to the carry; they do way more damage when they get their items, and they're called "the carry" for a reason. Junglers like Master Yi just do tons of damage while being real slippery so he doesn't get killed; assassin junglers are meant to catch people out, go HAM, so to speak, and just destroy them. It is a bit more risky, as junlgers are usually under-leveled. Remember, jungling doesn't level you up as fast as cs'ing (usually). If you play a really aggressive ADC, then I recommend giving Yi a try; you just build straight damage and if you get on a roll, you should snowball just like most normal carries.

Like I said in 4, you should find a jungler that works for your playstyle. If Vi doesn't match with your playstyle, then you might want to try other junglers. I personally love to jungle Sion. Since 3 of his skills are CC, and his camp clear is easily sub-30 seconds, I get chilling smite for a ton of cc. As long as your lane is aware and you have good timing and positioning, you can do easy ganks and get easy dragons, especially early on. But that's my style, going in, laying down cc, and hopefully get the carry fed. You may very well do better as master yi, who I'm terrible with because he doesn't match my playstyle. can do it, it's just.... not as good.

Also, another point of advice. With smite having two charges that you can save up, it's a great idea to learn how to manage your smite, and it may be worth playing a few bot games to experiment with routes and use of smite. Don't give up on the jungle; you can become a good jungler, even if the thing is a bit rough right now. Oh, and don't be afraid to smite red first time around to give you enough hp to gank after; I do that all the time, and it works pretty well.

Duke Anax2/19/2015, 3:41:53 PM1 votes

If you get Counter jungled, get item 2049 Vision wins (a support should now that)

And when you see someone in your Jungle ping the hell out of them for help and take the kill.

The wolf buff helps here.

GummyBearWookiee2/19/2015, 5:04:45 PM1 votes

The clear times on them are absolutely horrendous...and honestly serve little purpose. Where it's true that the easiest paths out Bronze are technically Mid and ADC...if you're having issues with no reliable support the change to try jungle is understandable. Despite what was said...you'll want to stick to junglers with good clear, carry, and gank pontential.

In low ELO, your best junglers to main are going to be J4, Vi, and Wukong. All of them have good clear, good ganks, and excellent team fight potential and can be built either Tank or DPS depending on the situation. Look up Nightblue3 on youtube. He has some video guides on how to play these champs, what to build, and how to clear.

Remember that late game...smiting the Raptors is a great way to maintain vision control for helping to clear out enemy wards. The buff only lasts a short time though, so after doing so head over to obvious ward areas and clear...tri brush, the two small brushes in the river, etc. Best of luck...I as well am just learning the whole jungle thing for fun and profit :)

GundayMonday2/19/2015, 7:39:48 PM1 votes

Looks like you got some really good advice from everyone.

If you have more questions, I do a jungle twitch stream every night ~10pm EST for a few hours. Happy to answer questions around everything you asked and explain what's going on in different situations. Here's the link if you want to talk jungling! http://twitch.tv/gundaymonday